Method and apparatus for accessing Web services and URL resources for both primary and shared users over a reverse tunnel mechanism

Abstract

A method and apparatus for accessing Web services and URL resources for both primary and shared users over a reverse tunnel mechanism are provided. Current limitations on accessing Web services and URL resources located behind firewalls or otherwise made secure and largely inaccessible are overcome through a novel use of a “reverse tunneling” mechanism. The mechanism uses an Agent to obfuscate physical address endpoints of Web services and other resources, as well as to package SOAP service requests in such a way that they can be passed through firewalls unimpeded. All of this data transfer is made secure through encryption, strong authentication, and by making use of the security environment on both a user's individual device and the LAN proper. In addition, a primary user may share data access rights within the secure LAN environment to a secondary user and, using the present invention, provide only those access rights to the shared user over the open Internet.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates to the area of tunneling, and more specifically, to using a tunneling mechanism to securely access Web services and URL resources located on a network protected by a firewall, and make those resources securely available to strongly authenticated users in the open Internet environment. [0003] 2. Background Art [0004] As the Internet grew in importance as a business communications backbone, keeping corporate data secure from Internet raiders known as “hackers” became a top priority. The creation of “firewalls” (hardware, software, or both), data protection devices that effectively block all unwanted incoming Internet traffic, created a second problem while solving the first. [0005] In order to make a corporate network secure, firewall administrators close down all but a few needed ports into the corporate site and drastically restrict the types of data allowed to be transferred in and out of the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] An embodiment of the invention may provide a way to stream and access Web services and URL resources over another allowed or more standard protocol and port in a secure fashion. An embodiment of the present invention may use established tunneling techniques to innovatively pass logical and semantic bits of data, as well as application resources, from a secure LAN by “piggy-backing” a Web service such as a service using the SOAP protocol over another allowed or more standard protocol such as the HTTP protocol on port 80.

[0020] Replacing the typical traditional requirement to create security exposure points in the environment by “punching holes in the firewall” in order to access secured network resources at the semantic or logical level is very useful. Rather than creating such exposure points for hackers to try to violate the secured network firewall, an isolated and standards-based mechanism for external access of resources located within a protected LAN can be achieved.

Problems solved by technology

The creation of “firewalls” (hardware, software, or both), data protection devices that effectively block all unwanted incoming Internet traffic, created a second problem while solving the first.

Unfortunately, while firewalls do provide protection by making it possible for corporate network administrators to restrict both ports and data content types, needed firewall configurations often hinder effective business and private communications that are both harmless and business strategic.

Virtual Private Networks are powerful in that they make remote access and work possible, yet they are very clumsy because they are image based.

These “screen-scraping” techniques are very bandwidth heavy and often result in very noticeable latency issues, leading to high levels of frustration among those who depend on this methodology to remotely access their corporate data.

In addition, some tunneling protocols are not as secure as others.

Currently however, there is no secure procedure for accessing Web services and URL resources securely located behind a secured network such as a corporate LAN.

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